But let me tell you a story about a literal boat, a literal storm, and a prophet named Jonah.

Now, we all know the story of Jonah and the whale (or big fish, depending on the translation!). But before the fishy business, Jonah found himself on a ship packed with people from all seventy nations of the world, each clutching their own idols. As Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, these weren't just any travelers; they were representatives, delegates of entire civilizations!

The ship, of course, ran into trouble. A fierce storm descended, threatening to swallow them whole. Desperate, these representatives made a pact. They decided to appeal to their various deities. The deity who answered their prayers, who brought salvation, would be declared the one true God. Talk about pressure!

But here's the thing: silence. No booming voices from the heavens, no miraculous calm, just the relentless roar of the storm. Nothing.

And where was Jonah in all this chaos? Asleep. Sound asleep, down in the hold of the ship. Can you imagine? Everyone else is frantically praying, and he's catching some Z's. (Maybe he was trying to avoid his divine mission? More on that later…)

The captain, understandably frustrated, finds Jonah and wakes him. "We're about to die!" he shouts, more or less. "And you're sleeping? Tell me, who are you? What's your story?"

"I am a Hebrew," Jonah replies.

The captain's ears perk up. "We've heard that the God of the Hebrews is the most powerful," he says. "Pray to your God! Maybe He'll perform a miracle for us, like He did for the Jews at the Red Sea!"

Think about that for a moment. Even amidst a storm, surrounded by representatives of seventy nations, the reputation of the Hebrew God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, preceded him. The captain remembered the story of the Red Sea, the miraculous parting of the waters. He knew of a God who intervened, who acted in history.

And so, the stage is set. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, is about to be thrust into a situation where he can no longer run from his destiny. Will he pray? Will his God answer? And what about those other gods, the idols of the seventy nations? Will they finally speak? The answer, as we know, involves a very large fish, but that's a story for another time.

But this initial scene, this boat filled with desperation and the faint glimmer of hope in an ancient miracle, makes you wonder: What storms are we facing today? And who are we turning to for salvation? Are we looking to idols, or to something… more?